Ah, the first one might still be my favorite one. It's a really weird series quality wise, every installment gets different things right and wrong. The first one is the most atmospheric and has the strongest story, but the combat is an acquired taste.

Yeah, I really enjoyed the first one a lot. It felt the most "Star Trekish" to me as far as atmosphere. The second one I thought relied too heavily on action and cover. There were already plenty of games like that out at the time it released. ME2 also didn't expand on its RPG roots enough to feel like an actual sequel. Haven't played ME3 yet, so I won't judge the things people didn't like about it. It'll be cheap soon enough.